I'm not quite sure how to rate this one. I enjoyed it for the most part, but there were things about it that kind of grated on me. I had ambivalent feelings about many of the characters, but it was a fast, easy read. I may eventually pick up the next one but I'm not in a rush at the moment.

Also, I know a lot of people have compared it to Alice in Wonderland and Labyrinth. Frankly, the Labyrinth references were so blatant that I had to wonder if Kagawa was trying to do it on purpose. While that could work with a single element, doing it over and over again smacks of unoriginality. Also, the favorite-movie-from-my-childhood reference that I thought was also very strong was the Neverending Story. Think about it. Fantasia was the land created by the dreams and imagination of people. It was slowly being destroyed by the Nothing, because people were no longer dreaming and imagining stories. (Not to mention the disintegrating semi-useful Oracle) Yeah. I like allusions to things—stories, movies, art—that I love, but not constantly.

Anyway...there were flashes of description in Kagawa's prose where I had a little, "Oooh, that was nice!" moment, and other places where the tellingness just kind of bothered me.